Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron FinTech Fund” first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund rose 4.83% (Institutional Shares) compared to an 8.24% gain for the FactSet Global FinTech Index and a 7.50% gain for the S&P 500 benchmark index. Against a confusing market backdrop, the Fund appreciated during the first quarter yet trailed the Benchmark and the broader market. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron FinTech Fund highlighted stocks like CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) operates global contract market for the trading of futures and options. On June 5, 2023, CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) stock closed at $186.27 per share. One-month return of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) was 0.89%, and its shares lost 8.13% of their value over the last 52 weeks. CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) has a market capitalization of $67.005 billion.
Baron FinTech Fund made the following comment about CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
“These adverse impacts were somewhat offset by favorable stock selection in Capital Markets and E-Commerce as well as meaningfully lower exposure to the lagging Payments theme. Strength in Capital Markets was attributable to double-digit gains from market operators MarketAxess Holdings Inc., Tradeweb Markets Inc., and CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME), as these businesses benefited from a pickup in trading activity. We believe the Fund is well positioned to withstand an economic slowdown for several reasons. First, the vast majority of our companies are profitable, generate free cash flow, and have modest debt levels. Second, several of our holdings have idiosyncratic or counter-cyclical growth drivers. For example, trading activity at CME Group, Inc. MarketAxess Holdings Inc., and Tradeweb Markets Inc. tends to rise during periods of market volatility and economic uncertainty.”
Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash
CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 55 hedge fund portfolios held CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) at the end of first quarter 2023 which was 58 in the previous quarter.
We discussed CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) in another article and shared the list of crypto stocks billionaires are loading up on. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
